Wendy borrowed a 400-page book from the library. She read 50 pages. The book is due in 5 days. Complete the inequality to find x, the number of pages Wendy must read to finish the book ?

Question

Wendy borrowed a 400-page book from

the library. She read 50 pages. The book

is due in 5 days. Complete the inequality

to find x, the number of pages Wendy

must read to finish the book ?

Answer 1

Hello!

With word problems, we always start by identifying what we know, what we don't know & what it is they are asking for.

What do we know?

Book is 400 pages long

She has read 50 pages

Book is due in 5 days

What are they asking? It says "number of pages", but that's just the 350 pages remaining, so I'm thinking the original question asked "How many pages per day?".

Sometimes, since "inequality" can be little tricky, I start by just writing the equation for X (the "equality"):

(Total Pages - Pages Read) (400 - 50) 350

X = ------------------------------------------ = ---------------- = ------ = 70 pages per day

Days 5 days 5

Now that we know 70 pages per day will allow her to finish in time, we just need to think about whether X should be greater than, greater than or equal to, less than on less than or equal to 70.

Well if 70 pages per day is enough, reading more than 70 pages will work too. So it's "greater than or equal to". That makes the inequality:

X >= 70 pages / day

Hope that helps!